Within the next ten years, blockchain technologies will be a given in our software projects in the same way databases are today. In this session, Ingo Rammer presents the technical foundations of current blockchain technologies – without any hype or fancy crypto currencies which border more on tulip mania than on serious software engineering. You will learn about the basic elements, types and operations modes of today’s blockchains; about the fundamental differences between public and private/permissioned networks. And you’ll face the reality of smart contracts: that they are neither smart nor contracts, but simply rules to validate transactions in a reliable, distributed way – and a powerful base for projects spanning multiple organizations. After this session, you’ll have a solid basic understanding to evaluate whether your use cases can be supported by blockchain-based technologies.